The Cleveland Orchestra announces Indiana University residency activities for January 2010

Orchestra to perform works by Brahms, Wagner and Adès at IU Auditorium, Jan. 20; Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, orchestra musicians and administrators offer a broad range of educational activities for IU and Bloomington students during intense four-day residency

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University and The Cleveland Orchestra today (Dec. 18) announced details of The Cleveland Orchestra's newly established Indiana University Residency, to take place Jan. 18-21, 2010.

The IU Jacobs School of Music has partnered with IU Auditorium to present The Cleveland Orchestra concert and to broaden the orchestra's visit so that it brings additional learning opportunities to students on campus and in the community. For a complete schedule of events scheduled during the residency, see http://music.indiana.edu/publicity/cleveland.

New Indiana University Residency

The Cleveland Orchestra will launch its first residency at IU in January. The IU Residency will include a performance by The Cleveland Orchestra during IU Auditorium's season of events along with master classes, coachings, arts administration seminars, and other community and educational activities.

"We are absolutely delighted to be able to provide our students with such an extraordinary opportunity to interact with and learn from so many world-class musicians in one setting from one of the nation's greatest orchestras," said IU President Michael McRobbie. "I am sure The Cleveland Orchestra will find a warm and enthusiastic welcome here at Indiana University, because our renowned Jacobs School of Music has cultivated a large and devoted following of classical music enthusiasts who regularly attend the school's performances. This will truly be a major highlight of the IU Auditorium season."

Performance at Indiana University Auditorium

The centerpiece of the residency will be an appearance by The Cleveland Orchestra led by Franz Welser-Möst on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 8 p.m., at the IU Auditorium. The performance will feature Brahms' Symphony No. 2; Wagner's Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; and Adès' Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz as soloist.

"The Cleveland Orchestra, the first world-renowned orchestra to visit Bloomington since 1991, will provide an incredible opportunity for IU to celebrate the finest in classical music and will prove to be a remarkable model for multidisciplinary student interaction," said IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher. "The concert at the Auditorium will be a fulfilling night of classical music favorites -- a memorable experience for the entire audience."

Photo by Deborah O'Grady

Leila Josefowicz

Indiana University Residency Activities

The Cleveland Orchestra's 2010 Indiana University Residency will include a variety of educational activities with Franz Welser-Möst and members of The Cleveland Orchestra.

"Over its history, the Jacobs School has experienced a close relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra," said Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards. "Faculty have come to us from the orchestra, and Jacobs School alumni have held positions in its ranks. Just last week, the orchestra announced that Distinguished Professor Janos Starker's student and IU alumnus Mark Kosower was named principal cello.

"It is in this context that the orchestra arrives in Bloomington to be welcomed by a collegial faculty, a grateful student body and an admiring public. We look forward to its much-anticipated residency and express our gratitude for the partnership with Doug Booher of the IU Auditorium in making this visit possible," Richards said.

The residency launches with a chamber music concert featuring members of The Cleveland Orchestra on Monday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m., at IU's Auer Concert Hall. The program includes Rossini's Duetto for Cello and Double Bass; Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor; Parpinelli and Cortes' Four Brazilian Dances for Double Bass and Piano; and Piazzolla's Milonga del ángelandLibertango.

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, Franz Welser-Möst will lead a coaching session with the IU Philharmonic, and assistant conductors Tito Muñoz and James Feddeck will lead side-by-side rehearsals with members of The Cleveland Orchestra and students from two IU orchestras. In these sessions, members of the orchestra and IU students will jointly rehearse Brahms' Symphony No. 2 and selections from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both pieces the orchestra will perform during the Jan. 20 IU Auditorium concert.

On Jan. 20, students at the IU Jacobs School of Music are invited to attend The Cleveland Orchestra's rehearsal at 10 a.m. Later that day, members of the orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst will hold a variety of orchestral repertoire classes, mock auditions and a student composition reading session.

A Cleveland Orchestra musician also will offer a program for students in the intensive violin project at Fairview Elementary School in Bloomington. The project, directed by IU Associate Professor of Violin Brenda Brenner and taught by numerous assistant instructors, gives first- and second-grade students an opportunity to take violin lessons three times a week throughout the school year.

On Thursday, Jan. 21, the Cleveland Orchestra's residency concludes with an Orchestra Management Seminar for students at the Jacobs School, the IU College of Arts and Sciences, and the arts administration program of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Members of The Cleveland Orchestra senior management will present an overview of orchestra management and address a range of issues currently facing arts organizations.

Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. In concerts at its winter home at Severance Hall and at each summer's Blossom Festival, in residencies from Miami to Vienna, and on tour around the world, The Cleveland Orchestra sets standards of artistic excellence, creative programming and community engagement.

The Cleveland Orchestra's educational programs, a cornerstone of its original mission, have introduced nearly four million Cleveland-area school children to symphonic music since 1918. During the 2009-10 season, the orchestra launched a Community Music Initiative that begins with orchestral performances led by Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland Metropolitan School District public schools.

Designed to provide greater access to orchestral music for more of Northeast Ohio's citizens than ever before, the Community Music Initiative introduces new programs throughout the year for students of all ages. The season closes in June 2010 with a free retrospective concert celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow program, featuring new works created through this ongoing program.

The partnership with Franz Welser-Möst, now in its eighth season, has earned The Cleveland Orchestra unprecedented residencies in the United States and in Europe, including one at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra. The orchestra returns to Vienna during the 2009-10 season for its fourth Musikverein Residency as part of a 10-concert tour.

The Cleveland Orchestra regularly appears at European festivals, including an ongoing series of biennial residencies at the Lucerne Festival (featuring Roche Commissions, a project involving the orchestra, the festival and Carnegie Hall). In the United States, Welser-Möst and the orchestra have toured from coast to coast, including regular appearances at Carnegie Hall. In January 2007, Welser-Möst and the orchestra began an unprecedented long-term residency project in Miami, Fla., where they perform annually at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and provide a wide array of community and educational activities. In addition to the IU Residency, the 2009-10 season marks the announcement of a residency at New York's Lincoln Center Festival.

The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 by a group of local citizens intent on creating an ensemble worthy of joining America's ranks of symphony orchestras. Over the next decades, the orchestra grew from a fine regional organization to being one of the most admired symphonic ensembles in the world.

Seven music directors (Nikolai Sokoloff 1918-33, Artur Rodzinski 1933-43, Erich Leinsdorf 1943-46, George Szell 1946-70, Lorin Maazel 1972-82, Christoph von Dohnányi 1984-2002 and Franz Welser-Möst from 2002) have guided and shaped the ensemble's growth and sound. Touring performances throughout the United States and, beginning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe, have confirmed Cleveland's place among the world's top orchestras.

Year-round performances became a reality with the first Blossom Festival in 1968, presented at an award-winning, purpose-built, outdoor facility located just south of the Cleveland metropolitan area near Akron, Ohio. Today, touring, residencies, radio broadcasts and recordings available by Internet download and on DVD and CD provide access to the orchestra's music-making to a broad and loyal constituency around the world.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

The IU Jacobs School of Music plays a leading role in educating performers, scholars, composers, music educators and dancers around the globe. The 170 full-time faculty members include performers, scholars and teachers of international renown. Many top musicians and scholars visit the school each year. The more than 1,600 students from all 50 U.S. states and 55 countries benefit from the intensity and focus of a conservatory combined with academic offerings of a major university. The Jacobs School offers more than 1,100 performances each year -- including seven operas and three ballets. For more information, see http://www.music.indiana.edu/.

Indiana University Auditorium

Since opening its doors in 1941, IU Auditorium has served as a university and community gathering place, hosting a diverse array of artists, entertainers, musicians and lecturers in an opulent 3,200-seat theater. The world's top artists have appeared at the Auditorium including The Metropolitan Opera company; the New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin Philharmonics; the Chicago, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras; top Broadway touring companies; and renowned musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz and Itzak Perlman. Politicians and cultural icons who have changed the course of history, such as Mikhael Gorbachev, Eleanor Roosevelt, Kurt Vonnegut, and Cornel West, have informed and enlightened audiences from campus, the community and beyond. Also prominent on the stages of the IU Auditorium throughout the years have been talented IU students -- performing in choruses, operas, plays, concerts, and other events.

The current 2009-2010 IU Auditorium season includes an eclectic range of arts and entertainment events. In addition to the presentation of The Cleveland Orchestra, the spring schedule also includes a rare solo recital Yo-Yo Ma and a new work by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company that the Auditorium co-commissioned with the Ravinia Festival. A complete list of IU Auditorium events and more information about the current season can be found at IUauditorium.com.